iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Photos and Old Movies

Most people associate video with moving images, but video " slideshows” can be extremely satisfying to watch, especially if you add commentary or music in iMovie, as described in Chapter 8. With a tripod, a music stand, and good lighting, your camcorder is all set to preserve your family photos forever.

If the photos were taken with a digital camera, there’s nothing to it: Just import them as described in Chapter 9.

The challenge is what to do about photos that aren’t digital—the old kind, the paper kind, the kind you’ll confront if you put together a biographical video about anyone who’s more than six years old.

Old Photos

Tactic one: Get the old pictures into the Mac using a scanner. As described in Chapter 9, you can then drop them into your iMovie storyboard electronically, without having to mess with lights, focus, tripod, and so on.

Tactic two: Film the photos with the camcorder. Take each photo out of its frame, prop it on a music stand or tape it to the wall, and slip a big black piece of cardboard behind it. Set up the camcorder so that it’s directly aimed at the photo (otherwise, the photo may look skewed or distorted when filmed). Use the manual focus on your camcorder, zoom in an appropriate amount, position the tripod and lights so that there’s no glare, and begin shooting. If you’re getting glare from the photo, use two lights, one on each side of the photo, each at a 45-degree angle to it.

Scanning produces a more professional effect. Still, filming ...